1782
Benjamin West’s unfinished painting of the American peace commissioners, 1783-84: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and William Temple Franklin.Image: Benjamin West · Public domainpolitics · Americas
Britain and the United States sign a preliminary peace
A year after the British surrender at Yorktown, the American commissioners John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens met Britain’s negotiator Richard Oswald in Paris. On 30 November 1782 they signed preliminary articles of peace. Britain recognised the thirteen United States as free, sovereign and independent, and agreed generous boundaries reaching west to the Mississippi, fishing rights off Newfoundland and the withdrawal of its troops. The articles became the core of the final Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783.
Source: The Avalon Project (Yale Law School): Preliminary articles of peace, 30 November 1782 ↗
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